As this week got underway, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and diplomatic envoy, assured Fox News that diplomatic efforts with Iran were ongoing. “The conversations between the U.S. government and different areas of the Iranian government at all areas is probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been, and so there’s been a lot of good dialogues, which I think is very, very helpful,” Kushner said.

He added that the process was advancing slowly, “but we are having very positive and active conversations.”

Roughly 24 hours later, his father-in-law said the opposite.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the president declared by way of his social media platform. In the same missive, the Republican added that the Strait of Hormuz is “open and operating.”

The latter point was obviously absurd — the Strait of Hormuz is many things, but “open” isn’t one of them — but just as important, if not more so, was the fact that Trump and his own diplomatic envoy took opposing views about the existence of talks with Tehran.

Making matters worse, the president hadn’t just contradicted Kushner, he had also contradicted himself. As CNBC reported, just two weeks earlier, the Republican said Iran was being “duplicitous” by denying that talks were underway. He went to describe the nature and details of the negotiations that he now apparently no longer recognizes.

Hours after publishing the provocative statement online, Trump also threatened to “bomb the s–––” out of Oman, which was bizarre given the fact that it’s a U.S. ally, but which also contradicted recent comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who assured reporters that the relationship between the United States and Oman is “fine.”

Trump also contradicted Rubio on the Strait of Hormuz: The former senator said no country should ever control the waterway, while the president said this week that the United States “owns” the waterway, which he hopes to make a U.S. territory.

On Monday, the president also wrote online, in reference to the ongoing war, “The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon.” The message directly contradicted his own vice president: JD Vance told Fox News late last week, “That’s goal No. 1 — keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.”

In other words, over the course of two days, Trump contradicted his vice president, his secretary of state, his diplomatic envoy and himself about an ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

To appreciate just how chaotic and dysfunctional the administration has become, consider the gap between the president and his own team about the basic details of the war.

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